mock-rodarte

My recent fashion doodles took me this way – highly talked about among all bloggers Rodarte tights repro! Unbelievable but true. I’ve never done such thing before, making a piece of clothing after an existing image, i.e. a rip off! Well, there’s always a first time for everything, so I did knit mock-Rodarte tights in white. Somehow everyone wants the black version, but I find it an extremely harsh style to wear, it almost begs for the fluffy dresses as it has been presented in the collection. The white version is softer, fuzzier and can be combined with all things sharp, pointy or draped without any harm.

Actually being not-so-straightforward thing to make those tights are just a knitted sausage, you just have to get the ‘imperfections’ right. I started with a row of 20 very large loops, alternating the thickness of my knitting needles with every row, then I brought it down to 15 around the thigh and knee, then down to 10 around the calf. One-legged sample is ready, now I need to buy proper mohair wool and get on with making the two-legged hairy monster.

!!!

The perfect street version of all ranted about in a former post. It's for the shoes, the leggins, the sleeveless peplum jacket and the nonchalant poise. The beautiful inspiration from the streets of London shot by Facehunter.

the crisis?

Following fashion weeks as they unfold one after another is some fun stuff, even when you’re laid back at home, surfing your digital guts out on a newly found ( and absolutely free )internet connection – thanks to James-the-discoverer!
Now instead of immediate blogging of some pointless rant I found myself studying in deepest detail the catwalk show of Armand Basi One, where Markus Lupfer is the creative director. And I can’t…get…my…eyes…off…it…

Calling on inspiration from Bauhaus and Helmut Newton, which so easily and indirectly translates into oversized shoulders, drop crotch pants, skin-tight knits perforated by rivets and creepers shoes. All well referencing back to the end of the eighties/beginning of the 90’s which is unsurprisingly THE period of reference for designers around the globe. It seems that there is more credit-crunch inspiration these days than for example inspiration from street-style blogs as it was a few seasons ago. That’s when we were getting vintagy 40’s inspired shoulders – remember the Filippa K shoulders, and Marc Jacobs that followed. And all those wonderful capes – just refer to the Facehunter report of Icelandic goddesses of Reykjavik where everybody seems to own one. Within all that lays the direct visual influence.
The other day I was asking myself where are we now….or rather being asked by a friend from the distant Portland about how we are here in bright and sunny Europe getting over the crisis…”the crisis?” Asked my new iPhone casually being placed on a table in a shabby café in Lille…”the crisis?” asked a pair of expensive Dries van Noten shoes on my feet…”oh, yes, the crisis!” nodded the silly smelly vintage coat (the one that got chopped to become a dress a la Polish cleaning lady)…well, decapitated dresses have a quiet unnoticeable voice anyway… So back to THE crisis.
The kind of crisis that is a profound inspiration for Mr. Lupfer and his work at this rather amazing Spanish label Armand Basi. The red thread goes back to, of course, aforementioned late eighties, and brings back the values of the time when the Japanese designers were discovered by the European public to cordially change the understanding of luxury, exclusivity and beauty of our post-modern society. The times possibly equal up financially too. This is no Great Depression when skirts shortened, smoking became fashionable and acceptable for ladies, as well as applying makeup in public was not considered to be a gesture of ill upbringing, short bobbed hair was the desired look and no longer the length of woman’s hair had any symbolic/class values, when Jazz Age was at its full bloom – all due to the recession.
So, where are we now? We are no longer modern. Exactly, we are post-modern. And the late eighties become the most direct and comparable reference. Easy! This catwalk season we are starting to see the numerous interpretations of it, from New York club scene to new wave, think of Ultravox and how serious can that album cover be?

Well, if you squint your eyes and use your imagination you’ll very promptly arrive at the Armand Basi catwalk images.
The less direct reference is a bit of a sad one. The luxury business shall see the decline, well at least in the countries where people still have some sense of future responsibility and not just fear of the future outcomes of today’s actions, i.e. Russia is at most not included…so if we stay focused on Europe, the kind of product that shall appeal to the customer is the investment type, even if it is designed to last one season, as long as it gives us the sense of timelessness, it gives us security. Hence the style that is being led forward by COS is the winner, ACNE is the roof and we, as a consumer crowd, shall go no higher. We might look higher, and that’s what every designer is trying to point out these days, saying “look, I’m crisis friendly!” Is it enough though?
We are allowed to take out inspirations from any source, of course. I guess I have chosen mine. The only trouble is integrating Lupfer’s work into your existing wardrobe without making it look like a credit-crunch-proof costume. Although, honestly it is. The amount of leather shows how protective the clothes actually are,

monochrome tweeds and exaggerated shoulders work their way to the perfect post-modern armour with a feminist edge. The skin-tight knits worn with creepers shoes are another feminist statement, and in my opinion is cut completely loose from any gothic/punk references.
Ingredients:
Drop crotch pants
Sleeveless jackets to be worn as tops tucked in the skirts

Grainy acrylic slouchy knits

Skin-tight, body-con, leather items, be it a dress or trousers, as long as they are worn in a casual way with a loose jacket with extreme shoulders – notice that the raised shoulders are very sharp and realistically sized, the oversized factor is seen only throughout the drop-shoulder shapes with large collars.

Creepers shoes or any pair of shoes inspired by such


Slouchy socks
All shades of black and sickly cool beige

Sickly cool beige make-up to correspond
Graphic leather accessories
I’m in!

fake cape

I do fancy an idea of a cape. Do not attempt to read between the lines – this is about a cape in the true sense of the word – that ubiquitous outerwear garment from a couple of seasons ago. Back then every self-respecting brand has produced a black cape-coat for the winter collection. I’m still kicking myself for not buying the COS version, it had a biker jacket feel to it, both ACNE and Filippa K had their own versions. But let’s not get into the banal again.

My inspiration here is a bit more awkward, because the ideal cape that I imagine is a fake one, it would actually be an ugly child of a fairy cape and a housewife-style batwing shirt, composed out of light-coloured and slightly textured fabric, with odd asymmetric length and some pleating details. And to detach it from the elf capes as reference to my pointy ears, the long draped cape part would actually be worn in front. All this might sound incredibly confusing, but it’s simply continuing the principle of the Season X for .origami mon ami which I’m working on a while back ago.

In this picture is a phantom dress which has two different dresses built one into another: a form fitting sleeveless bodice and a cape-like back which drapes loosely and hangs slightly lower than the front. So if I were to give this dress a backwards companion, it would be the fake cape.
General inspiration as follows:

A huge batwing shirt at the background by Monki, blue trench coat with front drapes, cape blouse by Henrik Vibskov, a Hel-looks image of a girl in a vintage cape, a Facehunter image of a vintage pleated dress, another pleated cape blouse by Henrik Vibskov, back drop dress by ACNE in beautiful shade of lilac.

Peut-être prêt-a-porter

I don’t mean to discuss labels and brands, but judging the difference in COS labels on every garment tells me that they’ve been ordered at a different producer. Henrik Vibskov’s label I shall not judge, for it is the biggest anecdote in fashion industry. How does this man manage to play a joke with everything that he does?

Alexis Taylor

This album should get wiped out of the music stores for Valentines! This man writes the most beautiful love songs, so each and every should be getting THIS for your sweetheart. Got my copy whilst in London, and I got it for myself, ooops…selfish and mean!

t for the orchids (???)

This is probably the very first outfit post. There are just too many blogs out there doing the outfit posts every day.
I’m a merry clicker and, honestly, I do check a dozen of such blogs each day, neither as inspiration, nor would they have any influence on my choice of preference, but as a matter of a habit I browse every day through:
Facehunter
The Sartoralist
Style Bubble
Stockholm Street Style
Hel-looks
Stil in Berlin
Childhood flames
Moderniteter
Kingdom of Style
..ok, it’s nine, not dozen…but they all have links…

The point is: this is an outfit post, and this is what I casually wore today. Loosely based on the interior become fashion post. COS drapy t for the orchids, H&M sleeveless vest for architectural structure, Filippa K leggings and Zara strappy sandal-boots for the grids + COS fluo bracelet + cup necklace from London.

sweet silliness

That’s Henrik Vibskov.

And that's a raspberry macaron...

…and if I were to have a coffee with ‘either… or…’ I would be facing a great dilemma! Get the point?

Mapp

Looks inviting and worth a visit!

chair, become shoe

Finding myself at my parents’ place is not so bad afterall, since I can spend a lazy morning admiring my mom’s collection of design objects. There’s a very particular red thread running through the interior, from colour palette to choice of objects and shapes of the chairs. It’s very interesting to be able to see things in a different light sometimes, even those objects that have become banal and usual somehow. The moose head makes me think of the Undercover’s fringed dress, the bird sticker on the window becomes a batwing shirt ( not to mention a black batwing coat!), orchids are like the floating silhouettes of Dries van Noten collections, vases with ears are like stiff fringes of the Natalia Brilli leather scarf, cross suspension lights are glowing sequins restricted by graphic pattern, and of course those infamous chairs become a stark grid of gladiator sandals.

Images are:
Leather scarf by Natalia Brilli, from Reborn
Chairs by Konstantin Crcic in the kitchen
Gladiator sandals, from Topshop.com
White orchids in the living room
Graphic dress by Dries van Noten, from Style.com
The bird sticker on the window
Eared vases on the coffee table
Batwing shirt, from Monkigirl.se
Cross lights in the kitchen
Elastic panel skirt, COS
Graphic clutch bag by Dries van Noten, from Style.com
Fringed dress by Undercover, from Style.com
The moose in the living room

this is naive

This is probably the best London guide ever created. I did go on and explore some places myself. Here I present you the original, because no one can compete with such amazing photography skills. These are the kind of images that make me press play over and over again on that Dirty Projectors track. So here are the notes by naïve!

Apartment

I posted about The Apartment shop in Berlin a while back. This is actually an image from the first floor of the shop that doesn’t exist!

It feels like this blog is having some sort of anniversary event, because it now has a Facebook companion, and to be yet more bejewelled, I added a little playlist on the right-hand side, just above the archives>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Feel free to press play – these are 10 off-mood tracks of nowadays.
Enjoy!

Whoa! One hundred posts down! Onto the next one!

news brief

Nah! Not my length...have to get out on the bike more often...But to start with, there was a style post which I pondered on and hesitated about, it came with an array of inspiring images, the best of which are from the spring/summer Stella McCartney collection. It's not too unrealistic to wear a compact brief as a functional bottom...but i do feel a desperate need in opaque tights when doing so.